Tie Guan Yin by DMDQ
Oolong Tea / Straight
$7.27 for 250g
First Impressions
This Tie Guan Yin was one of those grocery store impulse buys from my favourite Asian grocery chain. The packaging caught my eye because of the decorative knot on the side. And for the low price of under $8 for 250g of oolong tea, it turned out to be an easy impulse buy. Plus, the packaging was nice. Sadly, there was no website or any other information.
The tea itself comes a vacuum-sealed foil pouch that’s sealed (but not resealable), and came inside of the cardstock carton with the decorative knot on the side. There’s minimal English on the packaging, aside from what’s required. The ingredients are: tie guan yin oolong tea from China.
The aroma of the dry leaf is lightly floral, the leaves tightly bunched up. There’s a blend of spring green to dark green – it’s a pretty dry leaf to look at.
Preparation
There were no steeping instructions that I could find on the packaging, which was fine. I used my regular steeping temperature and time for an oolong for this Tie Guan Yin. I used 195°F (91°C) water and did a steep for 2 minutes.
First Taste
Tie Guan Yin steeps to a pleasant yellow, with some fine tea dust that escaped the stainless steel infuser that I was using. The aroma is lightly floral, and grassy. The tea itself has a smooth taste to it, with a light floral sweetness. I found it to have a crispness to it, with a pleasant mouthfeel. I found that there’s a slight creamy undertone to the tea, despite having a lightness to it.
A Second Cup?
I did five resteeps of the same leaves, six steeps total. The subsequent steeps had an additional 30 seconds on top of the prior steep time. The flavour deepened and got a bit more creamy, with a fuller mouthfeel.
My Overall Impression
I loved DMDQ’s Tie Guan Yin. I found that the tea was tasty, and resteeped well. It has a very familiar flavour and is very similar to other tie guan yin teas that I’ve had previously. This Tie Guan Yin is pleasant to drink and have a nice afternoon resteeping session with, and the tea also has the benefit of being inexpensive for the volume of tea.
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